I love the National Football League.

Parity is at an all-time high and it is fairly true that just about any team that qualifies for a playoff spot has a legitimate chance to win a championship.

Super Bowl XLIII has such a matchup in the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Cardinals were supposed to be a one-dimensional team with a strong passing game but no running game or defense to speak of.

Oh yeah, and they play in the NFC West, a division many people thought didn’t even belong in the NFL.

But Arizona proved its critics wrong, rolling its way through three “upsets” — despite hosting two of them — and finds itself playing in the first Super Bowl in franchise history.

Pittsburgh took the more conventional route, being the No. 2 seed in the AFC, but had to go through a tough Baltimore Ravens team in the AFC Championship game, a team some thought had a good chance at beating the Steelers despite being a No. 6 seed.

These days, though, being a wild card can make you as dangerous as one of the teams with a first-round bye.

Once upon a time, an NFL team’s dream of winning the Super Bowl rested heavily on getting that bye in the playoffs on its path to the ultimate

That notion has been quashed in the last few seasons, but this year it was especially true.

In the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, an astonishing three of four road teams defeated the teams that received first-round byes, including both No. 1 seeds, the Tennessee Titans and the New York Giants.

That left some of the lower qualifying seeds in both conferences: Arizona, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Arizona and Philadelphia shocked the football world, not only by winning their respective games, but by doing so in dominating fashion.

Meanwhile, Baltimore survived a tough defensive battle with the Titans while Pittsburgh beat a resilient San Diego Chargers team.

Traditional non-contenders were featured in the first round as well.

The wild-card rounds were littered with two 8-8 teams that no one thought belonged in the playoffs (Arizona and San Diego), two teams starting rookie quarterbacks (Baltimore and Atlanta) and a team that went 1-15 the season before (Miami).

Even though Atlanta and Miami lost their respective games, how little time it took to revive both franchises was surprising.

Miami was one overtime loss away from being 0-16 last season and Atlanta had to endure the Michael Vick dogfight fiasco as well as former head coach Bobby Petrino, who was never loyal to the Falcons anyway.

The regular season was even more fun, with about 10 teams still competing for a playoff spot on the final day of the season.

The most notable teams left out were the New England Patriots — who went 11-5 despite losing star quarterback Tom Brady to a torn ACL — and the Dallas Cowboys, a star-studded team that couldn’t quite find a way to win with each other.

The talent level in the NFL is starting to even out, meaning that, finally, any team can win a game on any given Sunday.

Expect exciting unpredictability like this for seasons to come.

Reach columnist Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.